Thursday 24th September 2009 Gannay. C. Lat à La Loire

Warm and sunny. Set off in the car to get some Perspex for the bedroom windows. First we went to Weldom in Decize. They had no plastic in the right size, just big sheets, but we bought some aluminium strips and draught excluder from them. Drove on to Nevers and went in a Bricomarché. They only had huge sheets, they were patterned and expensive. We drove over to Bourges, a bigger place than Nevers, and went searching for a large DIY shop. We eventually found LeroyMerlin; they had a big sheet of Perspex, but couldn’t cut it (and it wouldn't fit in the car), so we opted for two one metre square pieces (to cut to the correct size ourselves) for 27€ each. We bought plugs and sockets for mains cables, a new switch for one of our angle poise lamps, six packets of brass screws, blades for cutting the Perspex and I treated me to a new orchid, a deep purple Cambria for 9.90€. Home, hot and shattered at 4.30 p.m. Two péniches and two cruisers had gone past while we were out.